Another Bright Spot
A review of a reading at Ernest & Hadley Books in Tuscaloosa provided another bright spot in my day,
After writing my missive about bird sightings yesterday, the day turned busy and rainy, as expected. Both the weather forecasters and my calendar predicted accurately, but what they couldn’t predict is what an idle internet search would dish up: a surprise review by Lilly Roehrig of a reading I did with John Miller at Ernest & Hadley Books in Tuscaloosa this past February. At first, I wondered how I could have missed, but then I realized it was just published on April 25.
Over on my blog, I wrote all about it, so I’m only going to cross-post here and add a few comments. At first I wondered why it took nearly two months for the review to appear, but then I realized that it was written by a student at the University of Alabama (you wouldn’t know that except she talks about her student status and the piece was published in Ripple Arts Review, a publication of the English Department. Both the writer’s busy schedule and the online magazine’s production schedule likely contributed to the delay in publication.
Many thanks to Lilly Roehrig for this reminder of a lovely evening and for inspiring thoughts about creating more opportunities like this. And many thanks again to John Miller and the lovely folks at Ernest & Hadley for making it possible.
Roehrig’s other article on attending an Eco-Poetry workshop got me thinking some more about the environmental writing workshop I’ll be leading next month with our MFA students. I’ve been thinking a lot about that, as I should, and though I doubt I’ll incorporate a Buddhist prayer bowl into my process, as the workshop leader did, her article did get me thinking more about how I can incorporate the history of the places we visit into the experience. We’ll see where that takes me.
One upcoming event I didn’t mention yesterday is the McMullan Writers Workshop, where I’ll be part of a poetry panel (tentatively on June 9). I still don’t know the other poets, but I do know the keynote speaker is Lee Durkee, and I’ve seen on social media that Ellen Ann Fentress is planning to take part again, and there may be more familiar faces. So I’m really looking forward to that.
As I say in my blog post (agreeing with Lilly Roehrig), it’s good to get outside our comfort zones and explore new communities.